Behind The Scenes And On Their Plates At The CNN Heroes Award Show

The only problem is it leaves you feeling like an awful person who doesn’t do enough

— crew member behind the scenes

Every year, CNN brings ten people, heroes, of incredible character from around the world into one room to honor their good giving a that extend far beyond themselves. In true form, this is done in the form of the most heart wrenching award show there is. One of these heroes wins a prize of 100 thousand dollars to help push their great doings to the next level.

Each of these #CNNHeroes is paired with a celebrity who stands center stage and shares their tear jerking stories. For the rest of this story, you can visit the CNN Heroes website.

I'm here to tell you an entirely different story, a story of exploring behind the scenes of a celebrity clad table-seated gala held in New York City’s Museum of Natural History to tell you what is actually on those celebs plates that you never actually see. Truly, a delicious night at the museum!

One key element to note, CNN brought in four of us social media influencers to explore this award show and share some of its key moments from our perspectives on our respective Instagram accounts. What this means, is we weren't technically considered press, instead our badges read “Production B” which confused the bejesus out of anyone running security. Oh, we took full advantage of that! Right after catching all of the celebs and heroes strut and pose and strut a couple more feet and the pose again, two of us strolled directly through the red velvet curtains into VIP.

There standing before us chatting amongst each other were Neil Patrick Harris, Chris Noth and Zachary Quinto; sitting on the nearest couch to them was Taylor (orange is the new black star); and walking in behind us was Victoria Justice. That’s it! Well, there were two stylists and the bartender. Yes, we were surrounded some of our favorite celebrities. Now, picture it, in parade servers with small bites on platters--lobster avocado bites, pistachio crusted cheeses presented on little sticks like lollipops, jalapeño topped tuna tartare served on silver spoons.

Delish, no? I vote yes! That may be because the Production B friends were the only ones eating the food! Blasphemous! We joked, well, kinda joked “celebrities don't eat, more for us”. The server stood in front of us and literally pleaded “want more” and then with the sound of desperation, “please”.

After all of this exploring and small bites, we were notified that food service was ending in the main hall where all of the guests were sitting under the blue glow of the museum’s whale. By the time we walked in, elegantly dressed with grey pants and vests servers were parading partially picked at dishes back into the pop up kitchen in one of the back rooms of the museum. Again, celebrities not eating.

Not to worry, I ran over to the chef and channeled my inner celebrity, dropped my name and that I am a food writer and within seconds, he prepared us the dishes that the guests were eating—gravy coated steak and vegetables for the meat option and a manicotti topped with a secret green sauce and microgreens.

Naturally, my buddy Keen as she so called it “my partner in crime” of the night and I staged those dishes and had a mini photo shoot in the kitchen.

Right about now, Anderson Cooper is carrying a sloth out on stage and talking about a hero who works with with and rehabilitates them. That sloth stole the show, and heck yes I (plus everyone and their mother) pet it!

I know, you're dying to know, what do sloths eat. The answer is "leaves". That comes the answer straight from Snookie the Sloth’s handler. Oh yes, they named her Snookie because of her big hair—mmmhmmmm. PS. I like to envision the sloth making a gourmet salad with those leaves. Cause straight leaves forever sounds way boring.

That's about it, friends. I'd note dessert, but alas as we discussed earlier, celebrities don't eat, so why go all out? According to their menu, there were some assorted cookies. If those existed, perhaps they got demolished (here's hoping we have a room of sweet toothed celebs) because, I certainly didn't see any, grab a fist full and happily gobble them up.

Truly such a beautiful room of people both inside and out! So, grab a bottle of bubbly and tune in to CNN tonight to see who was titled with the honors CNN Hero of the Year!

I'll leave you with this fun behind the scenes interation three of us social media crew had with Sharon Stone and Kathy Griffin. I'll script it out so if we all cross paths again we can reinact it as it was.

Kathy Griffin[seeing the three of us jokingly says]: Is this the cast of Jane The Virgin?